How Feedback Can Support Your Creative Process
Feedback is essential to our creative lives. Here I’m not talking about the creation of our work itself but about talking about our work. While trying to express the vision that is in our head, one we know is beautiful or can help others, we often needs another pair of eyes, ears, or an open heart to help us see if we are hitting our mark. As creatives we express ourselves in our work but talking about our work can be a challenge.
We need feedback to know if we are on the right track in terms of sharing the feeling or meaning we wish to communicate and make our message clear.
Often feedback comes back to us in ways that are unclear, aren’t useful, or are even painful. That can lead us to drop our projects for a week, month or even longer.
FEEDBACK CHALLENGE #1: CLARITY
As a filmmaker who has held many work-in-progress screenings and hosted the Rough Cuts documentary work-in-progress screening series in San Francisco, I thought I was pretty good at facilitating feedback sessions, giving and receiving feedback.
Then, I put out two chapters of my work-in-progress book. I gave all the caveats such as: this is still in the ideas draft phase, I want general feedback, I want to know what resonates and where you have questions.
My readers were super generous with their time and attention and feedback. In fact they gave line-by-line feedback on the writing and ideas. And I was overwhelmed and worse, I had no idea how they received the content.
As a filmmaker, audiences view the work in its entirety and give feedback on the concept before sharing specific impressions, questions, points of confusion.
As a writer people can comment on every–single–line.
So challenge number one is getting the type of feedback that will help you understand your next steps. Sometimes you need detailed feedback and at other times you need to know the general impression of your work and what people understood.
FEEDBACK CHALLENGE #2: FIT
I had a second experience about my work. I was talking about shifts I am making with my work and she started sharing suggestions from the various courses she took and referencing the people she admired without taking the time to ask my goals or what I’ve already tried. I felt bombarded with feedback and suggestions.
The second challenge is getting the type of feedback you need. This might be a matter of asking better questions, finding the right person to give you feedback, and creating filters so you do not take feedback that isn’t helpful.
NAVIGATING THE GIVING AND RECEIVING OF FEEDBACK
These two experiences got me thinking about feedback, what works and what doesn’t.
HARMFUL FEEDBACK
While getting feedback might hurt, and that too is part of the process, there is some type of feedback that is harmful even if it is accurate.
This is feedback that causes you to
- Lose your sense of direction
- Lose your momentum.
If you get this type of feedback rather than take time to analyze what is valid or what isn’t, what you could have done better to clarify your request or what the other person could have done better, I suggest an idea from creativity coach and author Beth Pickens.
In her book, Make Your Art No Matter What, when talking about ‘the day of rejection.’ While she was talking about asking for support, I find this can also work when it comes to feedback. She tells her clients when they get a no, ‘they should make space for feeling terrible for half a day, one day tops.’ Feel the feelings, talk to friends but the next day, Pickens says, commit to three new actions.
In the context of feedback that might mean finding three aspects of your work that you know are strong. Our brains have a tendency to focus on what is wrong, what needs to be fixed. We need to help our brain focus on what is right about our work and what gives us joy about the work we do. When we get harmful feedback we have an opportunity to exercise that muscle in our thinking process.
HELPFUL FEEDBACK
For me, the most helpful feedback helps me understand what is landing and what isn’t landing based on my original intentions.
The key here is getting feedback that helps you see your work more clearly based on the type of people you want to reach and the message you want to share.
Artistic Works
When speaking about artistic works most ofen you want to share the inspiration behind the work and/or the process you used to create the work, rather than speaking about what the work means. You want to situate the work in terms of your own process and the wider context in which you are sharing your work.
Ideas for Change
When this relates to ideas for change, your goal is often to clearly state your idea in the context of other ideas, you are either adding to the existing dialogue or countering existing ideas. Your audience will both feel what you are saying and feel an aha moment if you’ve been clear and meaningful. If you are missing these two responses you need to figure out what part of your story needs to be adjusted.
ASKING FOR FEEDBACK
Here are some guidelines that can help you with your feedback process.
Know your goals.
What do you want to do with your writing, video, podcast? Are you asking someone in your target audience? What do you want to know and how is it going to impact what you do with your work? Asking these questions ahead of time will help you digest the responses you receive. Remember, you are the author of your story.
Be selective of who you ask.
Know who you are asking and understand their interests, background, and intentions. When you are starting out with a new idea or you are shy about sharing your work, find people you already know and trust. Maybe even set up a time to talk about the feedback. Written feedback often lacks nuance and can be easily misinterpreted. If you feel confident about your work and want a sense of how a broader audience responds to it then you can share your work with people you know less well.
Create filters based on your goals.
You can create filters ahead of time, for instance, I am looking for the emotional reactions or I am interested in how people understand a particular concept. I often filter based on feelings versus suggestions. In general, unless someone really knows my work and my objective I do not want to take their suggestion. Instead I look at the possible reason behind their suggestion or better yet, I can ask them, why do you feel this way? Filters can help you know what you want to keep and what you want to disregard.
Pay attention to strong reactions.
If you feel a particularly strong reaction to a comment that elicits strong emotions. I had a case where I felt embarrassed and dismissed by a particular set of feedback. But then I realized that in this version of my introduction I was more direct than usual. Of course, I don’t want to change my approach based on only one person’s feedback but seeing the introduction through her eyes gave me information about my own values and the impact of my words.
If you want help navigating feedback, join me for my feedback workshop where together you will articulate your goals, craft a set of objectives and filters for your project, and create a plan for the emotional ups and downs of the feedback process.
Sunday, January 16, Giving and Receiving Feedback Workshop